Comments on: The Age tracks down Katherine Wilson’s Address http://blogs.crikey.com.au/contentmakers/2009/01/08/the-age-tracks-down-katherine-wilsons-address/ Margaret Simons on Media Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:54:56 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: James Guest http://blogs.crikey.com.au/contentmakers/2009/01/08/the-age-tracks-down-katherine-wilsons-address/comment-page-1/#comment-220 James Guest Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:38:13 +0000 http://blogs.crikey.com.au/contentmakers/?p=326#comment-220 One of Wednesday's blog commentator's NIck, an editor, was spot on with his observation that there was nothing obvious in the "Sharon Gould" article to alert Windschuttle that it was other than a common sense piece about well attested behaviour, not least amongst journalists with no science or maths but the usual childish news sense. It is perhaps surprising that no one at Quadrant found time to explore the worrying allegations of PC or pusillanimous behaviour at the CSIRO putting a stop to potentially important research. That it was not done and there was not even a web search of Sharon Gould's credentials is testimony to the shoestring operation of Australia's serious magazines rather than a particular gullibility on Windschuttle's part. I certainly can't think of a Quadrant, or any other non-scientific magazine editor who would have probably done better, though I would give a chance to Peter Coleman and PP McG. The Age front page with the trivia of the Quadrant story side by side on its front page with serious allegations that the Navy was handling asbestos incompetently and unconscionably with potentially devastating consequences both to health and public finances invites more substantial investigation. If founding Private Eye editor Christopher Booker and Dr Richard North are to be takens seriously, as appears to be the case, their book "Scared to Death:.... Why Scares Are Costing Us the Earth" should put all journalists and editors on notice that "asbestos is not just the dangerous crocidolite (blue asbestos) from Wittenoom or asmosite (brown asbestos) from Africa but the marvellous chrysotile (white asbestos) - which The Age article was about - that is at least as different from the seriously dangerous forms of asbestos as fine powder snow is from glacial ice with rocks embedded in it. Now what about Crikey following up the great Chrysotile scare (I don't think I have missed something, have I?) - I suspect that James Hardie directors, in defending themselves, may prove to have learned more about the relatively harmless white asbestos than they knew when the company relocated to The Netherlands. (There is a NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet document on the www which relies largely on a document prepared for James Hardie and makes surprisingly little distinction between the different substancs all called "asbestos". One of Wednesday’s blog commentator’s NIck, an editor, was spot on with his observation that there was nothing obvious in the “Sharon Gould” article to alert Windschuttle that it was other than a common sense piece about well attested behaviour, not least amongst journalists with no science or maths but the usual childish news sense. It is perhaps surprising that no one at Quadrant found time to explore the worrying allegations of PC or pusillanimous behaviour at the CSIRO putting a stop to potentially important research. That it was not done and there was not even a web search of Sharon Gould’s credentials is testimony to the shoestring operation of Australia’s serious magazines rather than a particular gullibility on Windschuttle’s part. I certainly can’t think of a Quadrant, or any other non-scientific magazine editor who would have probably done better, though I would give a chance to Peter Coleman and PP McG.

The Age front page with the trivia of the Quadrant story side by side on its front page with serious allegations that the Navy was handling asbestos incompetently and unconscionably with potentially devastating consequences both to health and public finances invites more substantial investigation. If founding Private Eye editor Christopher Booker and Dr Richard North are to be takens seriously, as appears to be the case, their book “Scared to Death:…. Why Scares Are Costing Us the Earth” should put all journalists and editors on notice that “asbestos is not just the dangerous crocidolite (blue asbestos) from Wittenoom or asmosite (brown asbestos) from Africa but the marvellous chrysotile (white asbestos) – which The Age article was about – that is at least as different from the seriously dangerous forms of asbestos as fine powder snow is from glacial ice with rocks embedded in it.

Now what about Crikey following up the great Chrysotile scare (I don’t think I have missed something, have I?) – I suspect that James Hardie directors, in defending themselves, may prove to have learned more about the relatively harmless white asbestos than they knew when the company relocated to The Netherlands. (There is a NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet document on the www which relies largely on a document prepared for James Hardie and makes surprisingly little distinction between the different substancs all called “asbestos”.

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